Northgate Mall is located in northwest Seattle just off Interstate 5, the highway that forms the backbone of the city.

The earliest designers of malls like Northgate saw them as the suburban replacement for a vibrant downtown. Ironically, 70 years later, the "retail apocalypse" and larger urban trends may make that dream a reality in Northgate.

The city is hoping to turn suburban Northgate into a thriving urban neighborhood. Currently only reachable by car and bus, Seattle is in the midst of a a $1.9 billion transit project that will connect Northgate to downtown via light rail by 2021.

And the city of Seattle and King County announced last year they would contribute $20 million to build a mixed-use development next to the light rail station. It is expected to have at least 200 affordable housing units and several hundred market-rate units.

The city has a lot at stake. Seattle has become the US's hottest real estate market, leading the country in home price increases over the last year. Affordable housing and congested traffic downtown are lightning rod issues in the city.

The mall has a lot at stake too. As online retail takes over, having the mall at the center of a thriving neighborhood would be invaluable to generating consistent foot traffic.

But walking around the mall and its surrounding area, I found myself skeptical that the city's hopes would be realized. The area felt like the mall itself — a remodeled outside, but with an interior still stuck in the past.

The first phase in mixed-use development began at Thorton Place, which combines more than 500 apartments with a Regal Cinema, a medical clinic, and more than 30,000 square feet of retail space.

Completed in 2009, Thorton Place has a mix of apartments, townhouses, and senior housing, 56 of which are affordable units. Developers are hoping that Seattleites priced out of popular neighborhoods near downtown will see Northgate as a refuge.

The major office and retail building at Thorton Place, which housed the Regal Cinema, was an unattractive block that didn't look much different from its mall predecessors.

Stephanie Cegielski, spokeswoman with the International Council of Shopping Centers, told the Seattle Times last year that a mall's success is heavily dependent on being responsive to a "community's wants and needs." In a city that is increasingly desperate for housing, the redevelopment's focus on apartments seems correct.

One public benefit of the development was getting rid of a parking lot that was covering Thorton Creek. The resulting Thorton Creek Water Quality Channel is intended to rehabilitate the area's nature and limit the impact of pollution.

Considering the push in Northgate towards mixed-use, walkable developments, Northgate North confused me. It is car-centric and ugly.

Northgate feels inexplicably stuck between its car-driven past and the urban future it wants to create. Many of the newer developments are fashioned around cars that it feels hard to imagine it transforming into the walkable downtown envisioned.

Fireworks for the opening weekend of the Bon Marche at Northgate Mall, April 30, 1950. Macy's is now where the Bon Marche was.
seattlepi.com

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To be fair, development isn't done. But it feels like the developers are making the same mistake as early mall designers. Too many stores, and not enough of what makes a neighborhood: public spaces, community centers, and pedestrian walkways that connect everything.